Remington Rand

Remington Rand (1927–1955) was an early American business machines manufacturer, best known originally as a typewriter manufacturer and in a later incarnation as the manufacturer of the UNIVAC line of mainframe computers. Remington Rand was a diversified conglomerate making other office equipment, electric shavers, etc. The Remington Rand Building at 315 Park Avenue South in New York City is a 20-floor skyscraper completed in 1911.[1]

History

Rock Ledge estate in
Rowayton, Connecticut, company headquarters from 1943 to 1964. Retired General Leslie Groves, who had headed the Manhattan Project, served as chief of research and development during part of this time.

M1911A1 U.S. Army semi-automatic pistol manufactured by Remington Rand.

From 1942 to 1945, Remington Rand was one manufacturer of the M1911A1 .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol used by the United States Armed Forces during World War II. Remington Rand produced more M1911A1 pistols than any other wartime manufacturer.[5] Remington Rand ranked 66th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.[6]

Remington Rand was acquired by Sperry Corporation in 1955 to form a company then known as Sperry Rand (later shortened to Sperry). However the brand name of "Remington Rand" remained as a subdivision for many years.[8] Sperry merged in 1986 with Burroughs to form Unisys.[7]

Products

Typewriters

A Remington "Quiet-Riter" made for the British domestic market in the late 1950s

Initially produced by E. Remington and Sons, the Remington Typewriters were the first to use the QWERTY keyboard layout. Remington had bought the design from Christopher Sholes. The Remington No.1 was the first model released. All keys were uppercase. Remington spun off Remington Typewriter Company in 1886, and after the 1927 merger, the Remington Rand Corp. continued to manufacture and sell typewriters.[9]

The UNIVAC

The UNIVAC I(UNIVersal Automatic Computer I) was the second commercial computer made in the United States.[10]
It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC. Design work was begun by their company, Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, and was completed after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand. (In the years before successor models of the UNIVAC I appeared, the machine was simply known as "the UNIVAC".)[9]

Other products

Remington Rand also made electric razors. The Remington brand of razor was originally produced by a division of Remington Rand, starting in 1937. Sperry Corporation sold the division in 1979 to Victor Kiam, who became the company spokesman of the new Remington Products Company. His line, "I liked the shaver so much, I bought the company" became one of the more memorable advertising slogans of the early 1980s. Another slogan, "Shaves as close as a blade or your money back.[12]" helped Remington electric Shavers sales. Remington Products was sold in 2003 to the battery manufacturer Rayovac. Rayovac is now Spectrum Brands.

Depiction in popular culture

In 1921 Rand Kardex sponsored the Tonawanda Kardex all-star team of football players from Tonawanda, New York; known to have formed in 1916 and coached for its entire existence by Tam Rose. The team joined the NFL that season but folded after playing in just one game as a league member.[13]

The novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand said that she chose her Americanized name based on her Remington Rand typewriter.

The 1980s television series Remington Steele had Laura Holt (Stephanie Zimbalist) draw the personal name for her detective agency's fictitious male chief-executive official (whose identity Pierce Brosnan's character assumed in the first installment after discovering her elaborate ruse) from her old Remington typewriter. (The family name for the fictitious boss came from the Pittsburgh Steelers professional football team.)